UNITY'S PROFILE

It's good to see that Yvette, my favorite character, is still awesome after thirty years. Just got her and Leif back.

We beat the head of the church and his grim-reaper friend, and then... Mint collapsed again, and then...

...Wait... She's not waking up. ...And two of the people we met in the big city earlier had a kid, and we're going through his life...

Now he's run away and is a soldier in this new organization. He, the former enemy general, and the man who put on plays in that same city become the current party, and are looking for Ivy. And then I read the grave.

Mint's... dead!? Damn. Damn, that's harsh. We didn't get to see the impact her death made on everyone's lives (not yet, at least), and... she's just gone, it seems.

That point made me have to play further immediately to see what had happened. To find Ivy and see what had become of her.

The mines were a fun dungeon with the track-switching mechanic. But the boss of the mines was a bit frustrating. The crystal beast has the ability to hit harder than Oliver can heal in a turn, and to unleash a move that damages everyone and can stun them for a turn. He has a ton of HP. But the frustrating part is the fact that when he ups his defense, you can't hurt him unless you've upped your attack. It became a long slog of "hurt him, survive while his defense is up, keep healing, and keep upping my attack so I can hurt him some more." I was so thankful when he finally perished after several tries.

But I didn't realize an even tougher battle was around the corner. In the warped pink and purple area, you reach a point where there are a bunch of skeletons and undead fiends rise from them.

This is the big battle when Ivy rejoins the party. This is also a battle with a ton of enemies, each one of them seemingly immune to any status effects and all possessing powerful magic and the sleep spell.

Unfortunately, I only had one accessory that blocked sleep, and Ivy still had the cloak Mint had knitted her and not a sleep-blocker. I played this battle over and over. The silhouettes would put key party members to sleep and then slay them, and then overpower me and then it was all over. I'd buff Ivy's attack and speed, and she'd get put to sleep. I'd use a Remedy on her, and then a silhouette would send her right back to sleep.

I think I only eventually won by luck, as on my winning attempt, the Silhouettes kept trying to put to sleep the one person with the anti-sleep accessory, and by using Ivy's cross slash and a ton of HP Vacuum attacks, the last of the bastards finally went down for the count.

Between the 30+ year timeskip, Mint's death, and the frustrating battles, I'm feeling a little uneasy about this part of the game. But I'm still really invested in the story, so I shall keep at it and see what lies ahead.